After the public voting round there are still ten candidates in the race for the title of "Entrepreneur of the Year", an initiative of De Limburger newspaper. In the coming weeks all the finalists will be introduced. Who they are, and what their motives are.
But Today We Introduce André Rieu
Maastricht, by Will Gerritsen - The "André Rieu Productions "Factory" is running at full speed. With a tour group of one hundred and ten people, which he calls "one big family", he and his orchestra are performing this Saturday (24 Nov) in the Australian city of Perth, and in two weeks in Ireland and the United Kingdom. In January they will be in Amsterdam and Antwerp, while on the 11th and 13th of January their subsidiary "Piece of Magic Entertainment" will be streaming his New Year's concert in Sidney to cinemas internationally.
In between all activities a new CD "Romantic Moments II" will be launched. Who would have thought that of the violinist, who in the early days would perform with his Maastricht Salon Orchestra in amongst others, old people's homes and rehabilitation centers.? Despite his highly praised entrepreneurship, André Rieu has not followed any training in this direction. How did he manage to accomplish that? "I think two things have been very important: first of all, from the very beginning I have done everything together with my wife Marjorie and secondly, I received a few good lessons from my father-in-law, of which the main one was: persevere!" His father-in-law was a Jewish businessman in Berlin in the early thirties and had experienced the crisis. Rieu: "Then came the escape to Maastricht, the war, the hiding time, loss of family, friends and practically all of his belongings. Time and time again he had to start from scratch. Not only did Marjorie inherent this perseverance from him. Even I myself heard from him several times when I wanted to quit because everything was going wrong:" Keep going!"
When Rieu finally started performing, everything fell into place. "From the first concert on we were successful. There were of course setbacks, but the concerts were always fun and they gave me the courage to continue on. Success and adversity formed him as an entrepreneur: "It was and primarily still is 'learning by doing. If you are fooled once, you know that next time you better be looking out, make better agreements and make better business decisions". "Rieu pulled classical music out of its serious and snobbish bubble. That together with the rediscovery of the waltz are his biggest innovations.
"In the first place
I will not for a long time to come
consider to or probably
never retire at all".
The story that the carnival concerts of the Limburg Symphony Orchestra under the conduction of his father inspired him, he says to: "Well, as a child, I noticed that as my father conducted a whole evening of symphonies and other "serious music", then as an encore conducted a Strauss waltz, the atmosphere in the theater changed entirely. The audience had a smile on their face, swayed with the music or tapped with a foot to the beat".
An expansion of the "Rieu company" is the business start up of "André Rieu Productions Piece of Magic Entertainment" in 2017. Main activity: streaming live concerts to cinemas.
Speculation is that this will be the core business, if and whenever Rieu (69) decides to retire: "In the first place I am not going to nor will I probably ever retire at all. I find it too fun to be together to make music with my orchestra.
My son Pierre has indeed established "Piece of Magic" . It appears to be a very successful formula. Worldwide a quarter of a million people view our concerts in cinemas." Which entrepreneurs form an inspiration source for Rieu? "I am not so involved in doing business that I look at examples which I like to follow. Actually, I just do something, haha! No that's not true. I know exactly what I want, but that comes from within me."
Why Should André Rieu Win?
Ask André Rieu himself: "Why does he thinks he is eligible for the title of "Entrepreneur of the year?" Short answer: "I have no idea!" Outsiders however boast about his courage and his will to be create great dreams, like the glorious decor of the Schönbrunn Castle in Vienna, a 150 meters long replica which he had built. "I indeed have always been a dreamer, from child hood on. For example, I would watch at construction sites how Construction workers built a house, how a hole was dug, how the foundations were poured, the masonry walls were built and how the pipes were laid. I found everything interesting, learned from it and dreamed of it that I would later also be able to do that.
In the meantime I just forgot to go to school, haha!" "But who knows, maybe I have learned more from looking than from the school itself. In this manner I looked the same way as a child to violinist Herman Krebbers. I had a huge admiration for him and thought: "I want to be able to do that later too!"
Thank you to John for this article and it's Translation!
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